1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a resource management system that reserves and manages resources such as a communication bandwidth and communication quality of a network that is comprised of a plurality of mutually connected network electronic equipments. In this specification, a network resource is simply referred as “resource.” The present invention especially relates to techniques of reserving and managing resources in a home network where network-connectable home-electronics-appliances, such as AV electronic equipments, telephones, FAX machines etc., are connected.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a network environment represented by the Internet, a communication is done by dividing information into units called packets and by transmitting them. The packet transmission is processed by a best effort unless otherwise specified.
However, in multimedia data such as image and voice, communication quality should be guaranteed by securing the resource on a network path to communicate without disorder.
As a network resource reserving method, IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) provides for resource reservation protocols such as RSVP (Resource Reservation Protocol), as an Internet standard.
In RSVP, a resource necessary for a multi-media communication is secured on a path to a communications partner before starting the multi-media communication. Use of RSVP can guarantee the communication quality, since a necessary resource is secured for every stream before starting the communication.
IETF also provides for DiffServ (Differentiated Services), IntServ (Integrated Services), etc., as a method to realize a bandwidth reservation based on a resource reservation.
(1) The resource reservation by RSVP reserves a resource when a service is started and there is no guarantee that a necessary resource is surely secured when the service is received. Therefore, as a result, the satisfactory service may not be receivable. Such situation may be acceptable in general communication service.
However, users of AV electronic equipments such as a TV and a VTR installed in a home network and a FAX machine, etc. would not find the service quality noted above acceptable. That is, it is a socially accepted idea to use these electronic equipments stably and it is not acceptable that these electronic equipments cannot be used depending on the time.
Therefore, in the network that connects these electronic equipments, it is not satisfactory to say that the resource reservation by RSVP is not enough.
(2) Since an advanced technical knowledge is required to comprise the network so as to secure the resource, it is difficult for a general user to install and set up the network. Since the users without a technical knowledge are expected to use the home network, a technique for easy installation and setup is required.